'Sterile' Woman Seeking Cost of Rearing Child

NEW YORK — A woman who was sterilized has reportedly filed a "wrongful pregnancy" claim seeking the entire cost of rearing her 3-year-old daughter, it was reported.

KellyAnne Marie O'Toole was born in November, 1981, two months after her parents, Brian and Susanne O'Toole, filed a malpractice claim against the doctors who performed the sterilization and the hospital where it was done, the New York Times reported in today's editions.

What distinguishes the case from others is that the O'Tooles are asking the defendants to pay for rearing KellyAnne until she becomes an adult.

Ruling Likely This Week

The case is now before the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, which is expected to make a ruling this week.

Courts in at least six states have permitted parents to recover normal child-rearing costs in such cases, the newspaper reported.

Since the birth of KellyAnne, the O'Tooles' fourth child, the couple were forced to leave their one-bedroom apartment in Queens and move in with Brian O'Toole's mother. Mrs. O'Toole has left the house and begun driving a cab, the paper said.

A state Supreme Court justice ruled against the O'Tooles in 1982, suggesting that they could have chosen an abortion. But Mrs. O'Toole, a Catholic, said she would never consider that option.